Criminal Justice Reform

March 15, 2017

Justice Reinvestment Task Force

Louisiana’s Justice Reinvestment Task Force was created to study the state’s criminal justice system and recommend strategic changes to get more public safety for each dollar spent. The inter-branch, bipartisan panel of experts found that, with the highest imprisonment rate in the United States, annual corrections spending at two-thirds of a billion dollars, and high recidivism rates, Louisiana’s taxpayers are not getting a good public safety return on investment.

Examining practices in states like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and others that have adopted data-driven policy changes, the task force now recommends that Louisiana lawmakers adopt a comprehensive set of reforms to improve the performance of its criminal justice system. The reforms would ensure consistency in sentencing, focus prison beds on those who pose a serious threat to public safety, strengthen community supervision, clear away barriers to successful reentry, and reinvest a substantial portion of the savings into evidence-backed programs and prison alternatives and services that support victims of crime.

Expand incentives for inmates to participate in high-skilled workforce development and recidivism reduction programming.

Expand eligibility period for Transitional Work Programs and increase take-home pay.

Reinvest a Substantial Portion of the Savings

Reinvest over $154 million dollars saved from lowering the prison population into research-based programs that reduce recidivism and services that support victims of crime.

Impact of the Recommendations

The task force’s consensus recommendations would avert the projected growth in the number of prisoners in Louisiana and bend the prison population downward, for an overall reduction in the prison population of 13 percent (4,817 prison beds) by 2027. This decline in the number of prisoners would save Louisiana taxpayers $305 million over the next ten years. Savings in FY2018 alone would exceed $9 million. The recommendations would reinvest over half of the savings — $154 million — into research-based programs that reduce recidivism and services that support victims of crime.

The recommendations would also reduce the community supervision population by 16 percent (11,421 people) by 2027, compared to the projected population absent reform. Assuming Division of Probation and Parole staffing levels remain constant, this drop in the community supervision population would reduce average caseload sizes from 139 to 113 cases per officer.